29-year-old woman fatally struck by taxi driver playing Pokemon Go

This marks the second death caused by a driver playing the game this week.

David Craddock

August 26, 2016 1:16 PM

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A 29-year-old Vietnamese woman crossing a street on her bicycle was struck and killed by a taxi, reports TBS News (via Kotaku). The taxi driver was playing Pokemon Go at the time.

"Just before, I had been playing Pokemon Go, and I was going to charge my phone, and when I looked away, that’s when it happened," the 26-year-old driver said following his arrest.

In a recent update, Niantic added a warning message advising users not to play while driving. The warning is not easily skipped: users must press a button to confirm they saw the message before proceeding to the game.

Oblivious drivers too absorbed in playing Pokemon Go have been responsible for other incidents. In late July, a driver in Baltimore got too caught up in the game and slammed his Toyota Rav 4 into a police cruiser. "That’s what I get for playing this dumb a** game," the driver said in a video recorded by a Baltimore PD officer wearing a body camera.

Other incidents ended tragically. Just this past Wednesday, two elderly women in Tokushima, Japan, were hit while crossing a street; the driver, 39-year-old Keiji Goh, confessed to playing Pokemon Go while driving. Sixty-year-old Kayoko Igawa suffered serious injuries, but her companion, 72-year-old Sachiko Nakanishi, died after being transported to a local hospital (via Kotaku).

"I was playing Pokemon Go while driving, so I didn’t really see what was in front of me," said Goh.

Image courtesy of Kotaku.

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.